Leopards overcome 10-point, second-half deficit, win 79-71.

Tony Johnson walked into the Kirby Sports Center media room after Lafayette rallied from 10 points down in the second half to beat rival Lehigh on Sunday afternoon and couldn't help but let out a quick observation.

"Wow" is all that he said as he scanned his surroundings.

That summed the impression of every one of the 3,433 fans in attendance after the senior point guard dazzled the Mountain Hawks to the tune of 29 points on 10-of-12 shooting to go with four assists and two steals.

It continued an incredible stretch in which he has hit a pair of game-winning shots and been a dominant offensive force in Lafayette's three-game winning streak, including Sunday's 79-71 thriller which vaulted the Leopards into second place in the Patriot League.

"Never in my life," Johnson said of being in a rhythm like he's in right now.

Johnson's point total equals his career high, but most importantly, it gave Lafayette (15-14, 8-4) the regular-season sweep of Lehigh (18-8, 8-4) and the tie-breaker edge for second place. Both are two games behind Bucknell with two games left.

For a while, it looked as though there was going to be another hero.

Holden Greiner scored a career-high 27 points, including a jumper at the 10:46 mark to give the Mountain Hawks their biggest lead (57-47).

The Leopards then went on a 14-2 run to take their first lead (61-59) since midway through the first half on a Bryce Scott 3-pointer with 6:52 remaining.

B.J. Bailey responded for Lehigh with a trey, and then Gabe Knutson scored in the post to tie the game at 64.

Greiner took a breather on the bench while Johnson went to work.

He hit consecutive 3-pointers push Lafayette's lead to six, then threw perfect feeds to Dan Trist on a drive to the basket and a 45-footer to the streaking sophomore center in transition to cap a 10-point spurt.

Lehigh never got closer than seven the rest of the way.

"I try to stay calm for the most part," he said. "Even after the Bucknell win [Feb. 16] when we were down 13 and came back, that was pretty crazy.

"Every game I've had a little more confidence going into the next one. That's allowed me to stay aggressive for the entire game."

Leopards coach Fran O'Hanlon did give Johnson a quick reminder early in the first half after a rare ill-advised shot.

After that, the senior captain's performance was near-flawless.

"The job of a point guard is to win," O'Hanlon said. "If that means score, you score. The point guard has to assess what is needed right now. Tony obviously did a good job of that today, and the last game, and the game before that and the eight games before that."

Even Lehigh had to acknowledge that, despite their shortcomings defensively in the second half — Lafayette shot 66.7 percent in the final 20 minutes — that Johnson was the reason for the big comeback.

"[Johnson] had a pulse of the game for the full 40 minutes," Mountain Hawks coach Brett Reed said. "He certainly came to play today. Offensively, his conversion rate was incredible."

Lafayette also got timely play from others. Trist had 10 of his 14 points after intermission. Scott and Levi Giese hit clutch shots, and Giese had a big block on Knutson with 3:06 showing and the Leopards up 6.

Lehigh shot 52.7 percent from the field, but just 4 of 15 from 3-point range. The Mountain Hawks are 8-for-48 from deep during their three-game losing streak.

"We hit them in practice," Greiner said. "I don't have an explanation for it."

Lehigh, which benched starters Mackey McKnight, B.J. Bailey and Anthony D'Orazio for the game's first few minutes for being late for a team meeting, used a 7-0 run to take the lead in the first half. McKnight's 3-pointer gave the Hawks a 39-33 halftime lead.

Knutson had consecutive rebound baskets and Greiner followed with a pair of field goals, the first coming on a perfect 40-foot alley-oop from Bailey, to give Lehigh a 10-point cushion midway through the second half.

Enter Johnson, who hit nine consecutive shots in the game before Bailey ran him down to block his last attempt in the game's final 72 seconds.

"[Johnson] has been passing up shots for three years to get guys involved," Greiner said. "… He hit 3s in my face. He's hit big shot after big shot. It's what senior point guards do."

Game notes: Knutson had 19 points to move up four spots into a tie for 29th place on the league's career scoring list. … Lehigh had a 42-24 edge in points in the paint. … Lafayette was plus-3 in rebounding, led by Giese's eight. … Scott had nine points, five assists and two steals for the Leopards. … Giese had three blocked shots to give him 103 for his career. … Johnson's four assists ties his for seventh on Lafayette's career list. He also is one shy of fourth on the career steals chart. He leads the league in FG percentage, assist-to-turnover ratio and steals.